


Quis Custodiet.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Community: contrelamontre, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-05
Updated: 2008-03-05
Packaged: 2017-10-09 02:25:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/81959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who watches the Watchers?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quis Custodiet.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the contrelamontre forty-minute fear challenge.

_On a cold day in autumn, the Tribunal tries Adam Pierson in absentia for treason._

At the Academy, Methos made no waves. He knew nothing he was not supposed to know, never had an answer too fast. His classmates described him as quiet and shy. He was studious. He slouched. He grew his hair a little too long so people would think he never found time to cut it. He had no close friends.

He received the lowest marks of his career in ancient Greek. The instructor called his accent atrocious and insulting. He was nearly flunked out on principle alone.

Ten years later, had his recruiter not already been dead, the team who had to fix the Methos chronicle would have unanimously voted to shoot him.

_"This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen," Amy Zoll addresses the chairman. "You know he's laughing at us. This is just a waste of time."_

The first Watcher death on record occurred less than ten days following the forming of the secret society.

The Watcher's name was Larissa, and new recruits still swear on her name to remember the lesson of her death.

Because the Immortal still lives.

Or so legend says.

_"Yeah, I knew. Of course I didn't say anything!" Joe Dawson has been given a special dispensation to give his testimony over the phone. "Would you rather have a fragmented true chronicle or none at all?"_

Once upon a time, says Doctor Adams, there lived four brothers. They were inseparable in all things. And so when one died, the other three followed him into darkness, hoping to conquer death. And spread before them in Hades was all the power of the world, if they could only grab it. If they could only master death itself.

When lightening struck close by, Shelley jumped out of his skin.

And in the corner, unseen, a servant scribbled it all down.

_The Watchers assigned to the Immortal called Amanda begged the Tribunal's pardon, but they could, excuse our French, go fuck themselves._

The Watcher society in Athens was abuzz with news of the new Immortal. He was rough and not from anywhere they knew, but he could spin a tale to draw the stars down, and he was there to speak and to know and to learn.

This one will win, they said to each other, but on days when he and his kinsman passed them near, they shivered, and did not know why.

_Richie's Watcher gives them names and numbers and lists. "I've been compiling this for some time," she explains. "Pierson always spent too much time with MacLeod. Any idiot could tell something was going on."_

"The real fascination, you must understand," said the man, far too drunk to remember this in the morning. "The real fascination is how the bastards manage to do it. Live. Live that long. Because it's against all laws of nature and god. Take this one, their Adam. Almost five thousand years and he's still around. And no one knows where he is. That's the real trick. The greatest Immortal and no one has a bloody clue where he is. If only we could find him. We could learn so much, if we could find him."

Methos poured him another shot. "Fascinating."

_"You don't want to know what I saw," Cassandra's Watcher says flatly. "You can read my notes and you can force me to come here and lose my charge. But you don't want to know what I saw Pierson do. I'm only glad I didn't see what had to be the worst part. Down there in that submarine base, I can't even imagine what horrors Pierson perpetrated on Cassandra."_

"The sign is like this," Methos dug the dagger into the sand, finishing off the circle. "And that is how you find them. The society. They are the ones I hunt, and you will help me."

Kronos brushed his lips across Methos's neck and kissed his collarbone. "Yes, master."

_"All attempts to contact Pierson and bring him here have failed," says the head of European branch. "His latest ID picture has been circulated among all field agents. If he is there to be found, we will find him."_

"You are reaching critical mass," Methos whispers into Joe's voicemail. "All of you and you know it. Soon, you will no longer be able to hide. Soon, your records and your files and your chronicles will be confiscated by the public and everyone will know."

"Would you rather," he continues, and Joe stares at his machine, daring himself to pick up the phone, daring himself to confront him, "when my chronicle is read and all know of the legend of the eldest, would you rather I die on some government table, to power their bombs? Or shall I live to see the Gathering?"

"It's your choice, Joe."

_"We are disappointed in the efforts of our American representative, Mr. Joseph Dawson, who we are convinced is still in contact with the fugitive, and we encourage him to deliver Pierson to justice."_

Researchers in the 1970s pinpoint the era the legend of the one who hunts them changed from a snake in human form to an avenging angel disfigured by a blade, raining chaos down on them all.

Researchers following the trial match descriptions to photographs, and shudder. With unspoken agreement, they burn the evidence. There are some truths that are better off not known.

_The Tribunal has come to a decision on the matter of Adam Pierson, known to history as Methos. The verdict is death on all counts of treason. _

It is our regret that due to our laws, this is not a viable option. And so the Tribunal decrees: let Pierson live. But let this be a message to him. We are on our guard now. We know who you are. And we will not be taken for fools again.


End file.
